Press release

“It
is unfortunate how the promises that became the basis for optimism at the start
of Duterte’s term have now been replaced by excuses and lies by the police and military
to justify blatant violations of people's rights. The series of policies that
Duterte is implementing has substantiated claims that he is veering towards a
rightist direction - a path ladened with militarist and repressive policies. If
this continues, what kind of change can we expect?" said Karapatan
secretary general Cristina Palabay on the first year of the presidency of
Rodrigo Roa Duterte.

Victims of human rights violations and their families, human rights and peace advocates, leaders and members of people’s organizations and communities joined the National People’s Summit yesterday, June 28, 2017, at the Philippine Heart Center in Quezon City and forwarded their one year assessment* of their proposal for the Duterte administration’s peace and human rights agenda. The assessment of the Peace and Human Rights situation under the Duterte administration was led by Karapatan, Promotion for Church People’s Response, Hustisya, SELDA and Pilgrims for Peace.

"The use of torture
remains routine for State security forces. Political prisoners, for example,
have been subjected to such cruel, inhuman and degrading acts, done by the
police or the military for purposes of humiliating them and breaking their spirit.
Instruments of the State who have the primary mandate to uphold, protect, and
promote human rights are those who readily commit these violations. Moreover,

On June 22, 2017, the Regional Trial Court Branch 30 in Basey, Samar acquitted peasant Elpidio Romanca after the State Prosecutor failed to refute Romanca and his counsel’s argument that the evidence against him were tampered by the military, thus the fabricated charges of illegal possession of firearms and ammunition are patently false.

In a court order issued on June 22, 2017, Judge Lily Villareal Biton of Regional Trial Court Branch 77 in San Mateo, Rizal denied the motion of Dumagat political prisoner Eddie Cruz to visit his father’s wake in the family’s makeshift house in Sitio Ee, Brgy. San Rafael, Montalban, Rizal.

“For humanitarian considerations, political prisoner Eddie Cruz should be allowed to visit the wake of his father. The government has deprived him too long of his liberty to be with his loved ones, since his arrest on fabricated charges," said Cristina Palabay, Karapatan secretary general.

The Cruz family hails from the Dumagat tribe in Sitio Tuay, Rodriguez, Rizal. Before his arrest, Eddie worked as a farmer and was also occasionally hired as a tour guide in Rizal, as the breadwinner of the family. Since his arrest by virtue of a trumped up charge of illegal possession of firearms on August 28, 2010, his elderly parents had no choice but to work in the “kaingin” to meet the family’s needs.

“We express our condemnation and extreme disappointment on the release on bail of police officers involved in the Espinosa case, as among the clear indications of prevailing impunity under Pres. Rodrigo Duterte. We remind the President that his job as commander-in-chief does not entail protecting State security forces from accountability on their crimes,” said Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay on the release of the nineteen (19) accused policemen involved in the killing of Albuera mayor Rolando Espinosa.

"There are US soldiers unaccountable to Philippine laws loitering in Mindanao, there are groups that sow terror, we have martial rule and US-driven counterinsurgency programs which continue to repress people’s rights, and there are continuing unequal agreements with countries like the US. What we don’t have and what we are moving away from is the possibility of lasting peace, social justice and our capacity as a sovereign nation,” said Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay during today’s national day of prayer and action to call for peace and respect for human rights by people's organizations, personalities and individuals from various faiths, sectors and political affiliations.

Saying there were no
incidents similar to that happening in Marawi simultaneously occurring in the
rest of the twenty seven (27) cities and four hundred twenty two (422)
municipalities of Mindanao, Mindanao activists and human rights advocates today
filed a petiton before the Supreme Court against Martial Law in the entire
Mindanao.

"Since the
proclamation of martial law in Mindanao on May 23, Karapatan has already
documented four incidents of killings and thousands of civilians displaced due
to aerial strikes. Our tally has yet to include incidents in Marawi.
Nonetheless, all these has shown the propensity of martial rule to disregard
lives and safety of civilians and communities,” said Karapatan secretary
general Cristina Palabay, as the organization is set to join the National Day
of Prayer and Action for Peace and Human Rights on June 12 and an
interfaith humanitarian and fact finding mission in Marawi City, Davao del Sur
and North Cotabato on June 13-16, 2017.

Palabay added that
‘martial law not only curtails civil and political rights, but also the
people's economic rights.” Last June 2, 2017, over 100 composite fully armed
elements of the 66th Infantry Battalion-Philippine Army, Philippine National
Police, and company guards brutally dispersed twelve (12) striking workers of
the Shin Sun Tropical Fruits Inc. in Compostela Valley. Workers, led by their
union Shin Sun Workers Union (SSWU), an affiliate of National Federation Labor
Union - Kilusang Mayo Uno (NAFLU-KMU), launched a strike last April 2017 over
the illegal dismissal of 53 workers and to demand the regularization of 287
agency-hired workers of the manpower agency ECQ Human Resources Corp.

(Carmelita Atamosa, 67, supported the strike. Her
grandson and relatives were among the striking workers. She was mercilessly
pulled by Chief Senior Inspector Marvin Hugos. Photo taken from Carl Anthony
Olalo)